Factors and Challenges Affecting Implementation of Continuous Improvement

(Kaizen) Tools in Garment Factories

By Assefa Misgun,
Lecturer
School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering,
Ethiopian Institute of Technology-Mekelle, Mekelle University
Email: asseboy@gmail.com
Mobile: +251913867960

Abstract
Ethiopia, as developing country, is paying a due attention on Textile and Apparel sector which consumes
agricultural products as an input. There is highly encouraging environment for the sector in the country. In order
to get the sector globally competent enough and get the intended economic impact, there should be continuous
improvement in the sector. It is clearly observed that, most of the garment and textile factories in Ethiopia have a
problem in improving its capacity continuously. Concentrating on the garment section only, this study is to identify
factors affecting continuous improvement and propose solutions for each factor. Many researchers agree that top
management commitment and employee satisfaction are the critical pillars for continuous improvement in any
organization. Continuous improvement is highly related with persons’ mentality and attitude. In the data collection
to conduct this study; questionnaire, interview, focus group discussion and direct observations are used.
Photographs and written documents are used to record data. To analyze the data, SPSS and Microsoft Excel were
used. Using SWOT analysis, the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats of the factory to implement
continuous improvement tools are identified. In this study, three basic factors affecting continuous improvement
are identified and recommended actions are proposed. Moreover, an implementation manual or guideline is
developed.

Key words: continuous improvement, continuous improvement tools, Top management commitment, employee
motivation, employee participation

Introduction
1.1. Background

Industrialization in developing countries, like Ethiopia, is the new immerging path of developmental journey.
Agricultural development is one of the main requirements to have successful and incremental development in the
industrialization sector. Agricultural and industrial developments of a country, especially in developing countries,
have great impact on economic development of the country. They support each other in supplying one’s output as a
raw material to the other. The main inputs of industries like textile and garment industry, food processing
industries, leather and leather products producing industries, cosmetics and detergent industries and paper
industries etc. are obtained from agriculture. For industrialization, Ethiopia as a least developed country and have
high potential in agricultural sectors, is focusing on industries which consumes agricultural outputs as input like
textile and garment factories.

The textile and garment sector has potential resource in Ethiopia and it has due emphasis by the government. As
mentioned in [1], a study on ‘determinants of the performance of the garment industries in Ethiopia’ organized by
Ethiopian Development Research Institute, in Ethiopia there is some 2.6 million hectares of land suitable for cotton
production, which is equivalent to that of Pakistan, the fourth largest producer of cotton in the world. [1] Also
mentions that Ethiopia has the potential to develop cotton farms for domestic use and export.

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Recently, apparel and textile exports have been continuously increasing and it is contributing a great contribution
on the economic growth of the country. As per the study report by USITC [2], shows that only Botswana and
Ethiopia increased their exports of apparel from 2004 through 2005, and Ethiopia exports more textiles and apparel.

The presence of VEGA’s (Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance) Africa Growth and Opportunities Act
(AGOA) program is another opportunity which motivates the Apparel and textile investments in Ethiopia. VEGA’s
Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) program is a two- year export promotion program under the
broader trade initiative AGOA, which was signed into law on May 18, 2000 and modified on 2015. AGOA and all
tasks under AGOA are designed to offer tangible incentives for African nations to continue their efforts to open
their economies and build free and prosperous markets [3].

This program aims to develop and promote Africa’s least developed country’s export market to the United States
and other international markets. The program will accomplish this objective through three primary project
activities:

 Disseminating information to Ethiopian business regarding AGOA opportunities

 Creating and strengthening business linkages between Ethiopia businesses and the Diaspora community
in the US.

 Holding and participating in a series of trade and reverse trade missions for products with a competitive
advantage.

In Ethiopia, there is limited research on this area and it is very difficult to compare with other works. In some
factories under EFFORT (Endowment Fund for Rehabilitation of Tigiray), like Almeda Textiles Factory, Saba
Dimensional Stones (SDS), Sheba Tannery and Addis Pharmaceutical Factory have implemented kaizen specially
5S principles. Even if it is not researched, from the investigation through observation and assess through interview,
in these factories there was a problem in creating awareness to the employees through training and there was
limited management commitment in the implementation. There are so many encouraging improvements in the
factories but due to the above factors the effect of 5S is not fully utilized in the companies.

The case company has a strong linkage with international vendors from China, USA, Japan, Thailand and other
Asian and European countries. The factory is also beneficiary from the VEGA Ethiopia AGOA Program. As there
is incremental development of the sector, there are newly emerging competent garment and textile factories in the
country, the factory should build the culture of continuous improvement in the overall employees’ mind so that it
will keep in track with high competent in the national and international market. It created job opportunity for more
than 800 employees only in the garment section.

Based on different researchers, continuous improvement has two definitions. The broader definition of continuous
improvement encompasses various production and quality management tools under the umbrella of kaizen
philosophy. On the other hand, the narrower definition is improvement of the workplace (“gemba”) derived from
proposals from the workers on the basis of a quality control circle (QCC) and a suggestion system. This paper
adopts the narrower definition of continuous improvement and in this study, Kaizen and continuous improvement
are used interchangeably.

The Factory has both textile and garment sections. This work focuses only in the garment section. The reason for
focusing in the garment section is that it is more labor intensive than the textile section. This article is part of my
thesis work which was on implementation of continuous improvement tools and its challenges in garment factories.
This paper focuses only on the factors affecting implementation of continuous improvement tools.
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This paper has objectives of assessing practice of continuous improvement tools, the strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities as well as threats to bring the culture of continuous improvement and finally identifying the factors
affecting continuous improvement in the case factory based on statistical survey.

1.2. Significance of the Study

As it is discussed in the background part, the encouraging conditions to develop the garment sector, it is important
to conduct different researches to improve the capacity as well as productivity of the sector through continuous
improvement. In order to develop a culture of continuous improvement in the sector; the factors affecting
continuous improvement should be well identified; the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to
implement continuous improvement tools should be also assessed. This will have an advantage of improving the
factors so that a suitable condition for developing continuous improvement culture will be created.

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2. Literature Review
Most of manufacturing industries are currently encountering problems to respond to rapidly changing customer
needs, desires and tastes. For industries, to remain competitive and retain market share in this global market,
continuous improvement of manufacturing system processes has become necessary. This chapter is to define what
continuous improvement is, critical problems in creating continuous improvement culture and factors affecting
continuous improvement.

2.1. Continuous Improvement (Kaizen)

All researchers agree that Kaizen is Japanese term that means continuous improvement, taken from words, “Kai”,
which means continuous and “Zen” which means improvement. Continuous Improvement is defined as making
continuous incremental effective changes to the products/ process/ organization so that it can meet the customer
expectations over time [5]. Kaizen is continuous improvement in performance, cost and quality which strives to
empower the workers, increase worker satisfaction, facilitates a sense of accomplishment, thereby creating a pride
of work. It is one of the best initiatives which are related with continuous improvement of operators’ skills and
productivity through reducing losses, waste elimination, improving efficiency, improving process and improving
moral. It not only ensures that manufacturing processes become leaner and fitter, but eliminate waste where value
can be added.

In [6] it is mentioned that managers should spend 50% of their time in making improvements. This paper clarifies
the impact of top management in continuous improvement. In every aspect, the aim of continuous improvement is
to increase quality, reduce cost and meet delivery time through improving process to reduce wastes.

[7] Supports that kaizen is people oriented and it is being directed at people’s efforts. It describes as “Of course
results count, but kaizen assumes that improvements in people’s attitudes and efforts are more likely to produce
improved results in the long run than mere result-oriented thinking would do.” The researcher describes kaizen
step wise as: Starts with people; Focuses its attention on people’s efforts; People work on processes; Processes are
continually improved; Improved processes improve results; and Improved results satisfy customers.

[8] Summarized the principles of kaizen in seven points as the principles of Kaizen that must be understood are:

1. People are the most important asset. Teamwork provides results and gives everyone a feeling of
accomplishment. A dozen heads are better than one.
2. Everyone must be open to change and improvements. Ideas from workers, management, suppliers, and
customers can lead to new, better and easier ways of doing things.
3. Gradual changes are easier to accept than complete overhauls and employees are more likely to accept gradual
change. Small changes will demonstrate how a tiny improvement can provide real results.
4. Old ways of doing things may be comfortable, but not very efficient. Everyone in a company has to accept
Change is Good and necessary for company survival.
5. Making excuses is unacceptable if it is we have always done it this way and don’t see why we have to change
now. Keeping the old ways may result in a company not being able to survive the competition.
6. If the job is right the first time, waste will be reduced. Waste accounts for as much as 35% or higher of
manufactured product. By eliminating waste, profits increase.
7. Correct process errors immediately or they become larger. Equipment breakdowns and failures are a result of
letting a minor problem become a major headache.

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 Continuous improvement is a culture initiative. An organization must have leadership that encourages and
incents people to continuously improve their ability to meet expectations of high quality, low cost, and on-time
delivery. Many literatures agree on the advantage of kaizen in creating team work sprite and this has a great impact
on the improvement of individual workers’ skill as well as the overall productivity, quality and profitability
improvement of the company at large.

In [9], it is described that the core of Kaizen system is organizing almost the entire work force in multi-
level and multi-trade teams and empowering them to become effective tools for improvement in the organization.
These teams, in addition to performing their routine jobs are expected to do the following:

 Identify problems and opportunities for improvement in the current working methods.
 Develop and suggest ways of overcoming problems and improving performance.
 Implement improved methods.

Effectiveness of these teams is ensured by use of effective methods of team working. Also the team
members are trained in methods of problem identification, analysis and development of better methods [9].

2.2. Factors Affecting Continuous Improvement

Different researchers identify different factors affecting continuous improvement in different situations.
Even if most of these factors are related with continuous improvement in quality, some researchers’ views are
discussed as follows.

In [10] it is described that the philosophy, concept, and tools of kaizen have been adopted not only in
Japanese firms but also in many multinational corporations in the US and Europe. It also added that Many studies
note that, in both Japan and abroad (especially in the cases of American and European companies), leadership is
the single most important factor for successful implementation of kaizen. This implies that it is possible to apply
continuous improvement principles in countries with different socio-cultural contexts but that application must be
conducted under proper leadership.

In [11] (a study in Department of Defense in U.S), even if it is for quality improvement, comparisons have
made on factors affecting continuous improvement between two different papers [12] and [13]. The comparison is
as shown in table 1 below.

Table 1: Author cited Factors Affecting Continuous Improvement

Saraph and Others[12] Steel and Jennings [13]
 Role of management, leadership and quality policy  Top management commitment
 Product and service design  Quality Engineering
 Supplier quality management  Supplier relations management
 Employee relations  Employee empowerment
 Role of the quality department  Quality policy development
 Process management  Problem solving training
 Training  Measurement bias
 Quality data and reporting  Changing corporate culture
 Cross-functional problem solving
 Customer relations management

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 Mark and Theodore [11] also showed the critical factors affecting continuous improvement identified in
the award criteria for the Malcolm Baldrige Award, The Deming Prize, and The Presidential Award for Quality
and the Quality Improvement Prototype (QIP) Award. It is shown in table 2 below.

Table 2: Award Cited Factors Affecting Continuous Improvement

Malcolm Baldridge Award Deming Prize Presidential Award for Quality Improvement
Quality Prototype (QIP) Award
Leadership  Policy and objectives Top management leadership  Top management leadership
Management of Process  Organization and and support and support
quality operation Quality assurance  Quality assurance
Information and analysis  Education and Training and recognition  Training and recognition
Human resource extension Measurement and analysis  Measurement and analysis
development and  Standardization Employee empowerment and  Employee empowerment and
management  Control
Strategic quality planning
teamwork teamwork
 Data gathering, Strategic Quality planning  Strategic Quality planning
Customer focus and reporting and Customer focus  Customer focus
satisfaction analysis Quality and Productivity  Quality and Productivity
Quality and operational  Picture plans
 Effects
improvement results improvement results
results

In [14], six points are put as the ingredients of continuous improvement namely: (1) Management
commitment, (2) Education, (3) Implementation, (4) Measurement and benchmarking, (5) Recognition and (6)
Regeneration.
[15] Also mentioned ten decisive criteria for continuous improvement
1. Senior management commitment and involvement.
2. Leadership and active commitment to continuous improvement demonstrated by managers at all levels.
3. Focusing on the needs of the customer.
4. Integrating continuous improvement activities into the strategic goals across the whole organization, across
boundaries and at all levels.
5. Establishing a culture for continuous improvement and encouraging high involvement innovation.
6. Focusing on people.
7. Focusing on critical processes.
8. Standardizing achievements in a documented quality management system.
9. Establishing measurement and feedback systems.
10. Learning from continuous improvement results, the automatic capturing and sharing of learning.

From the above investigations, it is believed that the following factors are the critical factors which involve
most of the above identified factors. These factors are described based on the researcher’s view.

 Top management commitment and involvement – this factor is also about readiness of the management for
bringing a culture of continuous improvement in an organization through long term effort. This factor is also
includes the attitude (mentality) of the managers for change. In nature, we human beings are change resistant,
but managers should encourage changes. This factor mainly focuses on the perspective of the management on
change. If management has positive attitude, it is possible to talk about continuous improvement through
everlasting change.

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 Nature of the work – is the consistency of the work nature as well as which doesn’t give an opportunity for
change. For example, if the work makes all the managers, operators and supervisors always busy, they may not
get enough time to think about improvement.

 Employee participation – this is almost related with the suitability of managerial activities and the
organizational structure for continuous improvement. Presence of responsible body for trainings, development
and improvement in the organizational structure, availability of different ways of conducting continuous
improvement activities and tools like suggestion system, small group activities and so on. The status of
communication media among the company’s community is included in this factor. In addition, it is also related
with the way that improvement ideas are evaluated and implemented. If there is a bureaucratic system to
launch new improvement ideas, it is poor system for continuous improvement.

 Employee motivation – due to different factors, employees may not be ready for continuous improvement. This
factor is all about the satisfaction of the employees in the organization and their readiness for improvement.
The turnover rate, their satisfaction rate and other parameters are best indicators for measuring employee
motivation. This factor affects the overall capacity of an organization.

 Employee capacity – the capacity of the employees is another critical factor which affects continuous
improvement in an organization. If there are highly experienced and energetic employees with rich academic
potential there is a great advantage for continuous improvement.

 Lack of improvement ideas – this factor is inter-related with the capacity of the employees as well as their
motivation. If there are unmotivated employees with high capacity, there may not be improvement ideas from
the employees. In addition this it is also related with the Employee Participation in which improvement ideas
are treated from collecting to implementing stages.

2.3. Continuous Improvement Tools

There are a large number of related and often overlapping components that belong to the kaizen toolkit
such as: 5S, Suggestion System, Quality Control Circles (QCC) or Quality Circle (QC), Total Quality Control
(TQC), Total Quality Management (TQM), Toyota Production System (TPS), Just-In-Time (JIT) System, Kamban
System, and so on [10].

Summarizing these all, the following can be considered as the major continuous improvement tools and
they are defined based on [16] and [17].

1. Total Quality Management: this has been developed as and strategy to aid management in becoming more
competitive and profitable by helping it to improve in all aspects of business. Management’s role in TQM is to
set up a plan to check the process against the result in order to improve the process, not to criticize the process
on the basis of the result. In Japan, TQM encompasses such activities as policy deployment, building quality
assurance systems, standardization, training and education, cost management, and quality circles.
2. Just-In-Time: aims at eliminating non-value adding activities of all kinds and achieving a lean production
system flexible enough to accommodate fluctuations in customer orders. This production system is supported
by such concepts as takt time (the time it takes to produce one unit) versus cycle time, one-piece flow, pull
production, jidohka (automation), U-Shaped cells, and setup reduction. To realize the ideal just-in-time
production system, a series of kaizen activities must be carried out continuously to eliminate non-value-adding

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 work in gemba. JIT dramatically reduces cost, delivers the product in time, and greatly enhances company
profits.
3. Total productive Maintenance: focuses on improving equipment quality. TPM seeks to maximize equipment
efficiency through a total system of preventive maintenance spanning the lifetime of the equipment.
4. Policy Deployment: Although kaizen strategy aims at making improvements, its impact may be limited if
everybody is engaged in kaizen for the sake of paper value only, without any aim. Management should
establish clear targets to guide everyone and make certain to provide leadership for all kaizen activities
directed toward achieving the targets. Real kaizen strategy at work requires closely supervised implementation.

First, top management must devise a long-term strategy broken down into medium-term and annual strategies.
Top management must have a plan to deploy strategy, passing it down through subsequent levels of
management until it reaches the shop floor. As the strategy cascades down to the lower echelons, the plan
should include increasingly specific action plans and activities. For instance, a policy statement along the lines
of “We must reduce our cost by 10 percent to stay competitive” may be translated on the shop floor to such
activities as increasing productivity, reducing inventory and rejects, and improving line configurations.

Kaizen without a target would resemble a trip without a destination. Kaizen is most effective when everybody
works to achieve a target, and management should set that target.
5. Suggestion system: this system functions as an integral part of individual-oriented kaizen, and emphasizes the
morale-boosting benefits of positive employee participation. Japanese managers see its primary role as that of
sparking employee interest in kaizen by encouraging them to provide many suggestions, no matter how small.
Japanese employees are often encouraged to discuss their suggestions verbally with supervisors and put them
into action right away, even before submitting suggestion forms. They do not expect to reap great economic
benefits from each suggestion. Developing kaizen-minded and self-disciplined employees is the primary goal.
This outlook contrasts sharply with that of western management’s emphasis on the economic benefits and
financial incentives of suggestion systems.
6. Small-Group Activities: A kaizen strategy includes small-group activities- informal, voluntary, intra-
company groups organized to carry out specific tasks in a workshop environment. The most popular type of
small-group activity is quality circles. Designed to address not only quality issues but also such issues as cost,
safety, and productivity, quality circles may be regarded as group-oriented kaizen activities. Quality circles
have played an important part in improving product quality and productivity in Japan. However, their role has
often been blown out of proportion by overseas observers, who believe that these groups are the mainstay of
quality activities in Japan. Management place a leading role in realizing quality-in ways that include building
quality assurance systems, providing employee training, establishing and deploying policies, and building
cross-functional system for quality, cost, and delivery. Successful quality circles activities indicate that
management plays an invisible but vital role in supporting such activities.
7. 5S practices (housekeeping) – this tool is considered as the main and principal tool for the success of kaizen.
This is because it has its own contribution in the effectiveness of other tools. This is also supported by [10] as
among the tools under the kaizen umbrella, 5S is generally considered to be the most basic step for improving
quality and productivity.

Karkoszka and Honorowicz wrote that the bases of kaizen are constituted by 5S concept, defined by
Japanese specialists as a set of good customs and manners, deriving from the traditional manner of behavior in
house and school [18].

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 The definition of the 5S is directly related with the five Japanese words (Seiri, Seito, Seiso and Seiketsu).
When different researchers translate these words to English they use different English words most of them trying
to make 5S in English also. In this thesis the researcher has chosen the following most common English words.

 Seiri-(Organize): remove what is not needed and keep what is needed. proper (suitable) preparation of a
workplace, manner and instrument of work; with the elimination of everything useless,
 Seito-(order): place things in such a way that they can be easily reached whenever they are needed. It is
tidiness in a workplace and preparation of every required tools in the manner enabling simple and
quickly utilization,
 Seiso- (clearness or cleaning); Keeping things clean and polished; no trash or dirt in the workplace. Order
in a workplace allowing on increase of safety of workplace, control of equipment and responsibility for
the means of production,
 Seiketsu- (Consolidation or standardization); maintaining cleanliness after cleaning – perpetual cleaning.
Reminding employees about their duties in the aspect of care of used tools and equipment and about
keeping the workplace order,
 Shitsuke- (self-discipline); Commitment, a typical teaching and attitude towards and undertaking to inspire
pride and adherence to standards established for the four components. Adaptation of employees to the
principles accepted by the organization, independent elimination of bad custom, training.
8. PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act) cycle: this is commonly called Deming cycle (after Edward Deming who was
one of the quality gurus) and this cycle enables individuals in the factory to improve their capacity and creates
an opportunity to learn from their mistakes.

Deming cycle refers as the PDSA Cycle (Plan Do Study Act). The Japanese call it the Deming Cycle and
others call it the Deming Wheel and others call it PDCA Cycle (Plan Do Check Act). The model can be used
for the ongoing improvement of almost anything and it contains the following four continuous steps: Plan, Do,
Study and Act.
Plan - Develop a plan for improving quality at a process
Do - Execute the plan, first on a small scale
Study - Evaluate feedback to confirm or to adjust the plan
Act - Make the plan permanent or study the adjustments

As it is tried to clarify what continuous improvement is, it is a continuous small improvements and it is highly
integrated with PDSA-cycle. As it is shown in figure 1 below, in each small stage of continuous improvements,
there is PDSA-cycle activities.

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 /Study

Figure 1: Deming Cycle

9. Quality Circles - A small group of between three and 12 people who do the same or similar work, voluntarily
meeting together regularly for about an hour per week in paid time, usually under the leadership of their own
supervisor, and trained to identify, analyze and solve some of the problems in their work, presenting solutions
to management, and where possible, implementing the solutions themselves [19].

This study didn’t address these all continuous improvement tools rather, in the implementation manual; it
concentrates on the basic tools which will help the factory to improve its day to day activities through
improvement of the workplace (“gemba”) derived from proposals from the workers on the basis of a quality
control circle (QCC) and a suggestion system.

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3. Methodology
3.1. Data Collection

In the study different methods of data collection have been employed. In addition to the direct observations, formal
and informal interviews, focus group discussions; questionnaires are distributed. 84 questionnaires in English and
Amharic have been distributed to assess the general status of the factory’s performance on continuous
improvement. The questionnaire has four parts. The first part of the questionnaire is concerned on the general
information of the respondents like age, academic level, department and their division. In the second part of the
questionnaire, questions to assess the practice of continuous improvement tools and the culture of improvement in
the company are included in this part the factors affecting continuous improvement are assessed. In the third part,
the manufacturing wastes and the productivity of the factory are assessed. The final part surveys the employee
satisfaction. The status of using continuous improvement tools, the effect of different possible conditions affecting
continuous improvement in the factory; the effect of different wastes on the quality, cost and delivery date on the
factory; the availability of the seven types of manufacturing wastes and the satisfaction of the employees are
included in the data collected. The data are recorded using photographs and written documents.

3.2. Data Analysis

In the data collection, the satisfaction level of the employees, the current performance of the factory in continuous
improvement, the types of wastes which are mainly available in the factory, the effect of different wastes in quality,
cost and delivery time, the effect of different factors affecting continuous improvement in the factory, the age and
academic level of the employees in each department is collected and measured. Most of the questions in the
questionnaire were in Likert scale type of questions which are in alternative ratings. The Likert Scale is an ordered,
one-dimensional scale from which respondents choose one option that best aligns with their view. Statistical
Package for Social Science (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel were used in analyzing the data.

After assessing the practice of continuous improvement tools in the factory and identifying the factors
affecting continuous improvement, possible improvements and solutions are recommended based on the fact in the
factory and from different literatures perspective.

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4. Result and Discussion
4.1. SWOT analysis on implementation of continuous improvement tools in the case
factory

The four elements of a SWOT analysis undertaken as part of a wider strategic planning are shown below:

Strength: A resource or capacity the organization can use effectively to achieve its objectives.

Weakness: A limitation, fault or defect in the organization that will keep it from achieving objectives.

Opportunity: Any favorable situation in the organization’s environment.

Threat: An unfavorable situation in the organization’s environment that is potentially damaging to its strategy.

Based on these definitions, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the case Factory to
implement Continuous improvement principles are discussed below.

Strengths

 The factory has young and energetic man power

 It has attractive and clean external view

 The factory has more than enough Machineries

 Technology – the factory has high-tech machineries

Weaknesses

 There is no suitable environment for the employees to bring new improvement ideas

 There is no suitable system for continuous improvement

 There is no smooth communication system between the management and the lower workers

 There is no motivation of workers with new improvement ideas

 High turnover of skilled employees

Opportunities

 High availability of human resource

 There is high demand

 Nationally encouraging policy for the sector

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Threats

 National and international competition

 Cost and Quality competitiveness

4.2. Survey Results

As the survey result on the practice of continuous improvement tools in the factory shows, 44.4% of the
respondents believe that there is Total Quality Management practice in the factory and 24.7% of the respondents
responded that there is a practice of the principles of Just-in-Time practice in the factory. 13.6% also responded
that there are small group activities (line based practices). Based on the survey result, the other continuous
improvement tools are practiced inconsiderably.

The survey result is seen based on academic level and department of the respondents. Based on academic
level, it shows that TQM, JIT, TPM, small group activities and suggestion system are more practiced in the
supervisors and the higher officials (in the category “Diploma/10+1-3 or above”). TQM, JIT, Small Group
Activities and project team formation are also practiced in better way than the others tools in the operators and
lower employees. Based on the department wise, in the quality and other management departments, TQM and JIT
have better practice than in production department. TPM, Suggestion system and project team formation are better
in quality department than in the other departments.

Even if, in the questionnaire, the employees think that there are practices of TQM, JIT and other tools, but
from the interview and direct observation, the fact doesn’t show this. There is no practice of any continuous
improvement tool in the factory. In the interview, most of the respondents say that there is no continuous
improvement thinking from top management to lower level of the employees. One respondent says that
“everybody thinks only about leaving the factory, not improving it”. Generally, it can be concluded that there is
poor intention in attaining continuous improvement in the factory.

The variation of the survey result in the practice of the tools in department wise and academic level shows
that in the factory there is no well organized practice, because the practices of these tools should be companywide.
Had there been practice of the tools there wouldn’t have been such variation in the survey result.

The second question of the second part of the questionnaire is also concerned with the factors affecting
continuous improvement in the factory. Respondents are asked to select the major factors affecting continuous
improvement in the factory and the result is as show in figure 2 below.

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 Figure 2: Survey result on the factors affecting continuous improvement

From figure 2 the following three factors are selected by most of the respondents and they are found to be
the critical factors affecting continuous improvement in the factory.

1. Employees’ motivation

2. Top management commitment

3. Employee Participation

When the respondents are asked to mention other factors affecting continuous improvement, factors like:
shortage of raw materials and facilities, lack of transparence at all level of management, lack of motivation for the
employees from top management and discrimination between employees in promotion and work assignment are
mentioned by some respondents. Turnover of highly skilled employees and exchange of general managers are also
pointed out as a main factor.

It is also investigated the factors affecting continuous improvement in department and academic level wise of the
respondents and the result shows that top management commitment, Employee Participation and employee
motivation are found to be the main factors affecting continuous improvement in the factory. So, the factory is
highly recommended to focus on these three critical factors.

In addition to these factors, the following critical challenges for continuous improvement are identified.

 Lack of Training on continuous improvement

 Lack of workers motivation for continuous improvement

 Failure of the company to create an atmosphere where improvement proposals are welcomed

 Slowness or no interest in evaluating proposals promoting, or extending them and reporting management
decisions about adopting them

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  An attitude that “Our work is being done just fine or our work has been greatly improved” in our factory

 Lack of pressure to come up with improvements, so no one presents opinions about improvements

 Poor follow-up after implementation (no one bothers to evaluate or measure the impact of the
improvement idea.)

In the survey, as employees’ satisfaction is the major factor for continuous improvement, factors affecting
employees’ satisfaction is also assessed. From the result, six major factors are identified. These are:

i. Policies of compensation and benefits factors (Wage and salary, Benefits, Rewards and penalties)

ii. Promotions and career development factors (Promotion, Training, Capacity development)

iii. Competencies, Personalities and Expectations of employee factors

iv. Management recognition of employee job performance

v. Empowerment (Autonomy and independence)

vi. Relationship with supervisor factors

Another indicator for this issue is the rate of turnover. In my stay in the factory, at least one employee was
leaving the factory (only from the garment section) every week. Improving these factors is the first step in the
factory to enhance continuous improvement culture.

4.3. Discussion and Proposed Solutions

In the literature review, different factors affecting continuous improvement by different researchers are
reviewed and from the survey result, different factors are identified as major factors affecting continuous
improvement. Comparing all these factors, the following three broad factors are identified as the major factors
affecting continuous improvement in MAA Garment and Textile Factory.

1. Top Management Commitment and involvement – this factor is the base for the success of the other factors. If
there is committed management, it is possible to deal on the improvement of employee motivation and to
implement improvement ideas on the management system of the factory. The other factors mentioned by
different writers like recognition, focusing on people; training and education, employee empowerment and so
on will be facilitated if there is committed top management. Committed management for continuous
improvement is responsible for the following important improvement areas.

 Introducing new initiatives for continuous improvement

 Organizing trainings on continuous improvement (see in the implementation manual)

 Preparing strategic plans

 Implementing continuous improvement tools

 Motivating employees to bring new improvement ideas

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  Creating an attitude that improvement doesn’t stop - their work is not improved to their expectation and
motivating to improve continuously

 Creating an atmosphere where improvement proposals are welcomed

 Show an interest in evaluating proposals promoting, or extending them and reporting management
decisions about adopting new improvement ideas

 Creating a pressure to employees to come up with improvement ideas

 Develop a follow-up system after implementation of continuous improvement – evaluating or measuring

the impact of the improvement tools and ideas.

In the case, top management commitment should begin from fully emplacing the organizational structure.
In the organizational structure there should be responsible body to monitor and control this continuous
improvement issue. In the current organizational structure there is an ideal section (not functional at this time)
under Human Resource Department which is called “Training and Development”. This section is not functional.
Making this section functional and assigning a highly experienced and professional person in this position with a
responsibility to control continuous improvement issues in the factory like:

 Organizing different awareness creation activities and trainings for the employees

 Organizing trainings to develop employees capacity on the continuous improvement system

 To motivate employees to come up with new improvement ideas

 To collect employees’ improvement ideas, suggestions and organizing their evaluation and announcing the
result to the employees

 Implementing new improvement ideas

 Monitoring and evaluating the impact of implementation of new improvement ideas

 Benchmarking best practices of other factories and introducing the factory

 Organizing different employees motivating activities mentioned in above.

 Implementing the continuous improvement tools based on the implementation guideline

 Introducing other new continuous improvement tools in the factory and implementing them

 Improving the two other factors affecting continuous improvement in the factory (employees’ motivation
and the system)

This section should be directly responsible to the general manager for the decisions and other conformance
issues with high empowerment.

2. Employee Motivations - As it is discussed in the literature review, the employees’ motivation is the critical
factor for successful implementation of continuous improvement tools. As long as there is committed top
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management for continuous improvement, the employees’ motivation should be increased. The motivation of
employees can be increased by eliminating the factors affecting employees’ satisfaction which are identified in
the study. These factors are discussed below.

i. Policies of compensation and benefits: this factor includes wage and salary, benefits, rewards and penalties
policy. The employees indicate that the salary is not attractive. Even if there are employees who are happy
with salary increment but there are also so many dissatisfied employees who are complaining on the salary
issues. The main point for complaint is that the salary increment is not fair and transparent. Another
complaint from the employees is raised from lack of benefits and other rewarding systems. In different
companies there are different benefits given to the employees for motivation purpose. It is believed that the
cost of the benefit given to the employees is much lower than the increment in the productivity due to
motivated employees. So, having well studied benefit to the employees will have a great effect on the
motivation of the employees. Giving soaps, soft or other low cost items are some of the commonly
recommended benefits which will increase the motive of the employees in most of manufacturing factories.
Bonuses and incentives on holidays or when the factory gets high profit are also included in this factor. In
the factory, it is highly recommended to develop a well studied and motivating new policy.

ii. Promotions and career development: This factor is related with developing in job position (promotion)
and educational capacity of employees through training and other capacity development systems. Most of
the employees in the garment section of MAA-Garment and Textile Factory respond that there is no
clearly known promotion policy. In addition to this there is no trainings and other development policies
given to the employees except the training given at the beginning of the work for operators. In this case, it
is highly recommended to communicate with employees and let them know as well as discuss on the
promotion policies of factory so that they should know that they will get their promotion based on the
policy.

iii. Competencies, Personalities and Expectations of employee – this factor deals with the suitability of
employees competencies, personalities and expectations for policies of organization. In MAA Garment and
Textile Factory, most of the employees are highly experienced in their work and they have high
unexploited potential to improve the productivity of factory. They expect benefits and other encouraging
conditions. From the interview, it is identified that the employees are highly dissatisfied when compared to
their expectation when they recruited in the factory. To improve the impact, the management is
recommended to assess the expectations of new employees from the factory so that it will be improved
based on these expectations as long as it is possible.

iv. Management recognition of employee job performance – this factor is a factor which is related to response
from the management to the good performance of workers and the contacts and “thanks” from the top
management to the employees. In the case of MAA Garment and Textile Factory, the employees
(specially the operators) are highly dissatisfied on this issue. Most of the employees consider that there
are few employees to be recognized and promoted. They didn’t think that the management knows their
effort. As it is tried to understand from the interview, this is as a result of poor contact between the top
management and the employees. To improve this issue, it is highly recommended to prepare regular
program to create an opportunity for the top management to recognize the effort of the employees and to
confirm the employees that their performance is highly recognized by the top management. The
Management is recommended to give “thanks letters”, rewards and certificates for the employees who
serve the factory for long period of time and who have impressive contributions to the factory. Reward

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 system is one of the systems which shows the management’s recognition to the workers performance and
it can be conducted as “Annual awards (Bests of the year award system) system” like:

 Best line – based on the performance of the lines it is important to select best line of a year.

 Best supervisor – based on the performance of the lines and the supervision performance of the
supervisor, his/her relationship between the operators and other parameters best supervisor of the
year should be rewarded. This has an advantage to increase the competition among supervisors as
well as among lines and as a result performance of

 Best designer – the employees can have hidden design skill and it is possible to exploit this skill by
giving chance to compete in design and preparing a ceremony to select best designs of the year.

 Best improvement of the year – Employees should be motivated to bring improvement ideas and they
should be confirmed their ownership as their improvement idea is selected to implement. At the end
of the year best improvement idea should be selected based on the impact of the improvement on the
productivity of the factory.

v. Empowerment (Autonomy and independence) – this point is all about the giving full responsibility to the
employees on their work. The employees need to be autonomous on their work and they don’t need to be
dependent on others. In MAA most of the employees complain that they don’t feel comfortable with the
taking them from one task to another task by the supervisors and production managers. Once they are
assigned for one task they want to do that task consistently. This type of interference creates a sense of
dependency and they think that they don’t have full control on their work. This dissatisfaction is mostly
seen in the production department and stores. This factor is also reflected in Merchandising division and
Human Resource Departments. From the interview it is identified that most of decisions are dependent on
top management. To improve this factor, the top management should develop the capacity and skill of the
employees through education and training and give full responsibility on their work. Each department
should have plan and they should be evaluated based on their report and the actual work performed. In the
production floor, the production manager should prepare well studied and optimum production schedule
before starting production so that the shifting of employees from one task to another task will be reduced
and there will be smooth assignment of employees. In the implementation manual, it is clearly put how to
schedule production effectively.

vi. Relationship with supervisor – the relationship between operators and supervisors and production manager
is not to the required extent. In this issue the operators are dissatisfied on the relationship with the
management in general. They feel fear to talk any issue to the managers and top management and
supervisors. This issue can be improved by increasing the frequency of supervisors-operators meetings
(see in the implementation manual), general factory meetings. In addition to these meetings the top
management should prepare regular meetings with the whole employees of the factory. Different annual
special occasions and ceremonies are recommended to strengthen the relationship among the factory’s
community. In order to strengthen the relationship among the communities of the factory, the following
activities are highly recommended:

 Sport competitions – different sport competitions and get-together ceremony and carnivals have a great
impact on strengthening the relationship among employees.

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  Creating opportunities for the employees to discuss on their social issue freely with all community of
the factory by formulating different social clubs.

 Celebrating ceremonies in the factory which will create a good impression of their life in the factory.

 Money group saving and loaning systems which is facilitated by the factories managers.

3. Employee Participation – Once committed management and motivated employees are emplaced, it is easy to
improve the management systems and implement the systems properly. To increase the employee participation,
the following important points are recommended to be included.

 Creating different suggestion systems

 Develop and implement a system for immediate and direct responses to employees suggestions and
improvement ideas

 Creating smooth communication system among the factory’s community (see in the implementation manual)

 Developing and implementing a system to Empower employees

 Developing and implementing rewards, incentives and bones systems

 Creating opportunities to involve employees and try to incorporate employees’ ideas in decisions

Currently in the factory there is no good communication and announcement system between the top
management and employees. Figure 3 below shows the notice board and announcement in the doors of the canteen
which shows poor system in this regard.

Figure 3: Notice boards and announcement systems in the factory

In the notice board in the production room is very condensed by papers. There are different
announcements which are posted before 2 years. It is difficult to select and read the newly posted announcements.
In the implementation manual there are different systems to improve the communication and announcement
systems.

In the study, an implementation guideline for continuous improvement tools is developed. In the guideline
all the discussed factors affecting continuous improvement are addressed.

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3. Conclusion and Recommendation
3.1. Conclusion

MAA Garment and Textile Factory is a well integrated factory with high-tech machineries. However, in the factory,
continuous improvement tools and principles are not implemented and practiced. The strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats to implement continuous improvement in the factory are identified. The three critical
factors identified which affect continuous improvement in the factory are, top management commitment,
Employee motivation and Employee Participation.

The factors affecting employees’ satisfaction are also assessed in the factory and are found Policies of
compensation and benefits factors, Promotions and career development factors, Competencies, Personalities and
Expectations of employee factors, Management recognition of employee job performance, Empowerment,
Relationship with supervisor factors. As there is dissatisfaction of employees in these factors, there is huge wastage
in the factory.

Improving the above points by implementing continuous improvement tools, it will result high
improvement on quality, cost and delivery time. An implementation manual for continuous improvement tools is
developed. The implementation manual has different categories of concerns. In each category, there are different
improvement tools and activities are included with necessary guidelines including the definition of the tool,
prospective users, problem to be addressed, process of the tools, steps to implement, resource required, positive
impact of implementing it, challenges and pitfalls and indicators for monitoring.

3.2. Recommendation

In this study different factors affecting continuous improvement and employee’s satisfaction are identified and
discussed with their causes and possible solutions are recommended in each point. In order to improve the
factory’s competitiveness by reducing wastes, an implementation manual of different continuous improvement
tools is developed. So, it is highly recommended that:

 To implement the recommended action in the discussion of each points for improvement

 To follow the implementation manual in implementing different continuous improvement tools and
activities

 To improve all the factors affecting continuous improvement based on the recommended actions.

 To increase employee satisfaction by acting on the factors affecting continuous improvement

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